BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Mets' Search for a Manager Starts One Step at a Time

By RAFAEL HERMOSO

Published: October 4, 2002

ATLANTA, Oct. 3—
As the Mets dealt with more fallout from the firing of Manager Bobby Valentine, General Manager Steve Phillips began gaining permission to speak with possible replacements and will interview his first candidate Friday.

The Mets intend to move forward with interviews while some candidates are still busy in the playoffs. Buck Showalter and Felipe Alou are on the Mets' list and available to be interviewed now. The Mets have reached out to Showalter, but he said tonight he was not going to speak with them Friday. It was not known whom the Mets would meet with immediately.

Among the most intriguing possibility for an eventual interview is Dusty Baker, the San Francisco Giants' manager, whose contract will expire after the postseason. Baker will be offered a new contract with a raise by the Giants after the season, The San Francisco Chronicle reported today. But no one on the Giants had told Baker, and the fact that the Giants have kept him waiting may have created a strain between him and the organization.

One Mets official said the team had great respect for Baker as a person and as a manager and understood that he was well regarded throughout baseball. That is a serious consideration for the Mets, who are doing some major image rebuilding at this point.

The Giants' pending offer does not mean Baker is off the market. The Giants are almost obligated to make Baker an offer after he led the team to the playoffs for the third time in six seasons.

The Chronicle reported that Baker would draw the most interest from the Mets and the Cubs, the teams in the largest markets among the seven seeking managers and therefore the teams that can pay the most. But Baker told the newspaper today: ''Who said those are the right jobs just because they're big-market teams? Just because they're available? You've still got to figure out what is right for you.''

Jeff Moorad, Baker's agent, added, ''Dusty's intent has been to get the season behind him and sit down and evaluate his options at that point.''

Lou Piniella, the Seattle manager, is thought to be off the market because the Mariners have made it clear they want Piniella to honor the remaining year on his contract. But one official said today that this door had not been slammed shut and the Mets would soon learn whether Piniella was available. The Mets believe Piniella wants to come east, but have not approached the Mariners about speaking with him.

Rebecca Hale, the Mariners' director of public information, said today that the team did not want to address speculation about Piniella, ''somebody who is under contract and who would not be allowed out of that contract.'' Hale said that Piniella had not asked to be released from his contract.

The former Mets outfielder Lee Mazzilli, now the Yankees' first-base coach, and Wally Backman, a former Mets infielder who managed the Class AA Birmingham Barons in the White Sox organization to the Southern League championship, are also likely to be on Phillips's list. Mazzilli would have an edge because of his experience. Backman, under contract with the White Sox organization for another year, said, ''I'm interested in all of them.''

Valentine, meanwhile, told The New York Post and The Star-Ledger of Newark that Edgardo Alfonzo, Steve Trachsel, Mark Guthrie and Rey Ordóñez would not be back with the team next year.

A Mets official said that Valentine's comment was ''not completely accurate'' and that the team wanted to re-sign Alfonzo, Trachsel and Guthrie -- all free agents -- but that decisions would be based on financial considerations.

''For him to say that, he'd have to have an unbelievable crystal ball,'' the official said of Valentine.

Valentine told The Star-Ledger that the Mets would not offer Alfonzo what he was worth, but Peter Greenberg, Alfonzo's agent, said the Mets called him today to say they remained interested in re-signing him and would begin discussions shortly.

The front office has not received a directive to trade Ordóñez, but the team will continue to explore moving the shortstop, who has one year remaining on his contract.

The Daily News reported today that Fred Wilpon, the Mets' owner, was exploring whether Valentine violated a privacy clause in his contract by comments he made earlier this week revealing conversations with Wilpon and Phillips, and whether Valentine could forfeit the $2.85 million he is owed for next season if he did violate the contract. Two people close to Wilpon said he was not pursuing that avenue, although one said he might if any further remarks warranted that action.

INSIDE PITCH

RICHARD A. BROWN, the Queens district attorney, said Thursday that his office intended to arrange an interview with JODI TURNER, the 26-year-old Long Island woman who Mets pitcher GRANT ROBERTS has alleged tried to extort money from him.